Top honours for Bendigo's very best

COMMUNITY service is Ken Briggs’ business.The retired Kennington civil engineer has a list of volunteer positions on a range of service clubs as long as your arm.He has been a member of the Rotary Club of Bendigo South since 1979 and was its president in 2003/04. He was in the Rotary Club of Rochester from 1965 to 1972, when he was working on the Dartmouth Dam project in the state’s north-east.His time in Rotary has led to a rewarding series of overseas excursions and a medal in the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours.“I was a bit surprised when I was told I was being considered and I’m a bit embarrassed, I must admit, because when I think about it there’s a lot of people whose names deserve to be on that list more than mine,” he said.“When I see the things I’ve done it’s added up to a bit, I suppose.”Mr Briggs said highlights included working on the Rotary work party to construct school buildings in Maubisse, East Timor last year and chairing the committee that brought a troop of scouts from The Maldives to attend the 21st Australian Scout Jamboree in Victoria in 2007.He said representing his Rotary club in a project to build cyclone-resistant buildings on the island of Upolo in Western Samoa in 1993 and volunteered as construction engineer on a water supply for the village of Domasi in Malawi, central Africa, for two three-month stints in 2000 and 2002 were most rewarding.Mr Briggs has also been an elder in the Forest Street Uniting Church since 1986 and is heavily involved in the National Science and Engineering Challenge.>THE notorious Kew Cottages asylum in Melbourne was a foreboding place in the 1960s, when physiotherapist Liz Williams started work.But from those dark beginnings Mrs Williams, of Nanneella, near Rochester, built a career in paediatric physiotherapy that has been recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours list.“I spent my first year at Kew Cottages, which was a very Victorian institution for the intellectually disabled, mostly children,” she said.“It was quite a trial by fire, but I loved working with children and the disabled community.”From there, she spent 18 years at the Royal Children’s Hospital; finishing in 1997.Mrs Williams has worked at Goulburn Valley Health since 2003 and has had a host of academic appointments, including as senior lecturer with schools of Physiotherapy and Rural Health at the University of Melbourne, since 2004.She has been a member National Paediatric Physiotherapy Academic and Clinical Standards Committee since 2002 and helped develop the Malcolm B. Menelaus Rural Paediatric Physiotherapy Training Project in 2006.Committee Member and Victorian Representative, Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health, since 2005.Member, Australian Physiotherapy Association, since 1969; Founding Member, Paediatric Special Interest Group, Victorian Branch, 1975.She co-founded the Spina Bifida Foundation of Victoria in 1994 and on its board of directors until 2003, when she was made a life member,Mrs Williams also co-founded the Australian Dexter Cattle Association.She has received a medal in the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to paediatric physiotherapy and to the rural community of Victoria.“I am shocked but I’m very honoured and very pleased for the support,” she said.“It’s all about helping the children, especially rural children.”Mrs Williams said she could not have achieved anything without teams of dedicated workers behind her and the support of mentors along the way.? ? ?BOB Osborne has worked tirelessly for Maryborough since he moved there 50 years ago.Mr Osborne, 73, has received a medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours.Mr Osborne was the mayor and a councillor with the former City of Maryborough for two terms, is on the Maryborough District Health Service board, has compared the town’s Carols by Candlelight event for the past 26 years and has worked for a string of service clubs including Probus, Apex and Rotary in executive positions.He was a basketball player and coach for 35 years, served as president of the Country Victorian Basketball Association from 1981 to 1999, managed the Victorian under 16 basketball team from 1974 to 1991 and helped set up a competition for intellectually disabled players.He is the current treasurer at community radio station Goldfields FM.Mr Osborne has been honoured for service to local government and to the community through a range of health, service and sporting organisations.“I feel quite good about the whole thing,” he said of the award.“But everything I’ve done in the community is a testament to all the great people I have worked with over the years.